Raider Recap: Big Post Season Wins for Scarsdale Athletes

It was a big week for the Scarsdale Raiders winter sports team. A few teams like the basketball teams and hockey team closed out the regular season while the swim, ski and wrestling teams had their sectional competitions and finished with some great results; including a few athletes booking their trip to states.

We have all the highlights in this edition of the Raiders Recap.

Boys’ Basketball:
The Boys’ Basketball team had a huge win over White Plains to close out the regular season. Scarsdale beat them 59-57 on the road after losing to them 49-47 in December. The Raiders finished with a 10-10 record after starting the season 1-7. The Raiders will rest up and prepare for their quest to get back to the County Center. Playoff action will open up on Monday, February 23rd when the boys will host Port Chester at SHS in the first round.

Girls’ Basketball:
The Girls Basketball team finished the regular season with a 2-1 week. After falling to Ursuline on Monday February 9th, the ladies responded with wins over Mount Vernon and Suffern. The two wins were big for the Raiders because they beat Mount Vernon 77-29 and then Suffern 49-35. The team's next game will be during the quarterfinal round on Friday, February 27th on the road against Ketcham, as they earned a first round bye. Finishing the season with a 14-6 record, the girls will now look to carry this victory into the postseason.

Hockey:
The Hockey Team had a busy week, playing four games in five days. On Monday February 9th the team traveled up to Bear Mountain State Park to take on North Rockland, only to lose to them 4-1. Then, the Raiders played a back-to-back-to-back on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with all games played at Murrays; the Raiders home rink. On Wednesday, the Raiders beat the Mount Pleasant Ice Cats 4-2 and then the ETBE/New Ro Eagles* 2-1 on Thursday, in two very competitive league games. Then on Friday, with Scarsdale honoring their 11 seniors on senior night, the Raiders had a dominating 3-0 win over Clarkstown to close up the week and the regular season. The hockey team has a lot of momentum heading into the playoffs as they finished the regular season winning three games in a row and finishing strong with a 12-8 record. On Thursday, they will take on White Plains at Murrays in Yonker in the first round of the playoffs.

*ETBE/New Ro is a combined team with athletes on the team from Eastchester, Tuckahoe, Bronxville, Edgemont and New Rochelle high schools.

Mens’ Swim:
The Raiders competed at the section championships last week and sent two swimmers to states in different events. Seniors Avi Stahl and Kieran Lee won the section in their respective events. Stahl won the 200 meter swim and the 500 meter freestyle. Lee finished first in the 100 meter backstroke and the 200 meter individual medley. Both of these swimmers will represent Scarsdale at the state meet up in Ithaca, New York in March.

Skiing:
The ski team had their section meet last week at Hunter Mountain. It was a historic meet, as the Raiders had a record 17 skiers qualify for the section meet. Within their performance, Senior and Captain Stella Van Arsdale was Scarsdale's lone skier to qualify for states as she finished first in the girls giant slalom. Outside of Van Arsdale’s qualification for the states, the team had other very strong performances and overall it was a great season for the ski team.

Wrestling:
Wrestling had their sectional meet for both the boys and the girls at the County Center. While the boys did not have anyone qualify for states, they had a few athletes earn all section honors and even multiple wrestlers who earned their 100th win as a Scarsdale Raider. The girls had two athletes win the section in their respective weight class.

For the girls, Iman Maroff earned first in the section for the 120 pound weight class. Freshman Celeste Minardi got first place for the 152 pound weight group. Junior Daisy Bennett and Senior Jackie Goldberg got second in their respective weight classes. It was a spectacular day for our girls wrestling team as they were able to send a few wrestlers onto states.

For the boys, Junior Luke Iasielo earned his 100th win and in what was one of his final wrestling matches ever, senior Jack Harrison broke triple digits in wins. Three other wrestlers earned all section honors. Despite a few of the Raiders not exactly getting the results they wanted, it was a great year for the team and the seniors on the team had nothing to hang their heads about.

Track and Field:
The track team had their sectional meet this past weekend at the Armory and ran to some fast and decent results. Sophomore Ana Pettinelli finished first in the girls 1000 meter run, running to a time of 2:51. Right behind Pettinelli finishing in second in the 1000 was senior Rachel Rakower. Leia Patel earned a respectable third place in the girls 300 meter race. For the boys, senior Jake Saxon finished second in the 55 meter hurdle race finishing only 0.04 seconds behind first place. Rounding out Scarsdale’s best performers at sectionals, distance runners Charlie Rich and Nate Lynch finished second and third overall in the boys 1000.

Squash:
The squash team lost their last match on Wednesday February 11th 6-1 to a competitive Darien team with Junior Harsh Kakkar who is Scarsdale's number two ranked player earning the Raiders only win.

Cheerleading:
Cheerleading had a very successful annual nationals competition down in Orlando, Florida. It was a fun weekend for the cheerleading squad against teams from all over the United States.

Fencing:
The fencing team had a great outing at the section championship. Scarsdale’s Men’s Epee fenced to second place and men's foil finished fourth overall. Individually, Senior Captain Jack Levin and Freshman Adam Roth scored really high in Men's foil and junior Arthur Luk-Solarz finished with a really good result in Men’s epee. The fencing team will now shift their focus toward the offseason after having a great season.

It was another week of winning for Scarsdales teams and athletes. On an individual basis, some athletes brought hardware back to the ‘Dale by winning section championships and representing the Maroon and White in huge ways. For our teams that are still competing, they will look to add to those athletes who won section titles and are now in playoff time and in winner-take-all mode. For teams whose seasons were completed in the past few weeks, it was a great season and there were so many accomplishments up and down.

Scarsdale10583 and the Raider Recap will have coverage of Scarsdale sports as they compete in playoff time.